New York City is rejoicing Saturday night after the New York Knicks claimed their first NBA championship since 1973 — and set off a street party like no other in the five boroughs, five decades in the making.
The Knicks' 94 to 90, come-from-behind win over the San Antonio Spurs in Texas marked the culmination of a two-month playoff run that captivated the metro region. And when the final buzzer rang, the shouting, car horns, fireworks and sirens could be heard in every corner of the city.
Knicks fans want it all tonight.
Groups of fans gathered in public housing apartments in Long Island City, packed the amphitheater at Herbert Von King Park in BedStuy and filled the fan zone outside Madison Square Garden to watch the historic win.
“I’m ready to cry,” said John Kozak, a lifelong Knicks fan standing outside the Garden minutes after the final buzzer sounded. “It means everything.”
Immediately after the victory, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the next party: A ticker tape down Broadway’s Canyon of Heroes set for Thursday.
Police cordoning off fans on 7th Avenue
The scene near MSG grew unruly shortly after the win as fans poured out of bars to celebrate and thousands of people filled the streets. People jumped on cars and climbed light poles and subway entrances as police tried to move crowds away from the arena en masse. The avenues around the stadium were packed with people, mostly marching, singing and chanting.
A packed crowd is corralled by police on 9th Avenue
By 12:45 a.m, a cavalry of mounted police officers began moving revelers off Ninth Avenue and chasing the crowd toward Tenth Avenue to break up the party. An NYPD spokesperson said police had made multiple arrests in the aftermath of the victory but declined to say how many or provide more details.
At least two vehicles were smashed up near 7th Avenue and 28th Street as police held the crowds behind barricades. Plumes of smoke could be seen above the crowd.
Crowds grew restive on 7th Avenue
The impromptu parties spread far beyond the blocks around the Garden. Fans lit fireworks in Crown Heights and from the top of an apartment building in Astoria. They filled the streets of Carroll Gardens and Fort Greene chanting “Let’s Go Knicks.”
Hector Munera, 37, lives in Floral Park and said he traveled to Astoria to celebrate in the neighborhood where he grew up. The feeling of finally winning a championship, he said, was “euphoria.”
“I waited a long time, but it only made it sweeter,” he said.
Knicks fans gather at a Carroll Gardens watch party.
The Knicks clawed their way back from a 15-point deficit to finally take the lead in the fourth quarter Saturday night. But Knicks fans on the streets of Brooklyn said they never lost faith. The swing was, after all, barely half the 29-point Spurs lead the Knicks had to surmount in a historic Game 4 victory just three days earlier.
“Back in the day you were assuming they would be up and then lose,” said Moe Jabber, 40, who was watching the game on the street in Carroll Gardens. “But now it's different."
Bronx resident Christians Labasta, 39, said he works at Madison Square Garden, infusing the win with even deeper significance.
“My whole life I’ve been waiting for this moment,” Labasta said, between screams of joy and disbelief. “I have literally waited my whole life.”
The win capped off a remarkable postseason run, during which the Knicks won 13 consecutive games before finally dropping Game 3 of the Finals to San Antonio. But none of the four finals victories came easily, with the Knicks overcoming late Spurs leads in each one – elevating fans’ blood pressure before leaving them with memories to last a lifetime.
“I feel like I defeated a triathlon that I never even was a part of,” said Cassie Santos, 32, as celebrated the win with her 8-year-old son Fort Greene. “I feel ecstatic.”
Diehard Knicks fan John Hennegan, 57, watched the game at Midtown bar Canuck True North with his adult children and friends ready to celebrate an historic victory. He recalled the years of “heartbreak” – like the 1994 Knicks team that lost Game 7 to the Houston Rockets and other promising teams of the 1980s and 1990s that fell just short each year.
But the 2026 season ended with ecstasy instead of the agony familiar to Knicks fans over the past five decades.
“This is a dream come true,” Hennegan said before the Knicks even won. “To be in the greatest city in the world, with all these people hopefully on the verge of the greatest night in New York sports.”
